‘Real Estate Weekly’: Capital Region sees sales drop for first time in 2012

The eight-parish region tracked by the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors posted its first decrease in monthly home sales of 2012 in August, compared to sales on the same month last year. A total of 606 homes were sold across the region in August, down 15.1% from the 714 sold in August 2011. “I’m not sure what happened in August,” says Pat Wattam, GBRAR president-elect and realtor with the Pat Wattam Team at Re/Max First. “I’m surprised, because my team had a really strong August, and we’re having a really strong September so far, too.” Typically, August is a strong sales month, Wattam says, adding that she’s not too alarmed by this year’s decrease. “What will tell the tale is how September sales do,” she says. “We will get dinged a little bit on our September numbers because of the days we lost to Isaac, but hopefully we’ll regain those losses from August.” Year-to-date, home sales in the Capital Region were at 5,100 at the end of August—up 611, or 13.6%, from the 4,489 sold to date last year. That’s also better than the 4,588 sold year to date in 2010, and the 4,615 sold through August in 2009—but still 8.3% off from the 5,523 sold to date in 2008. Read the rest of this story and all of the new Real Estate Weekly e-newsletter here.